O Babylon!

I believe it was Saddam Hussein who first planted a military base near the ruins of ancient Babylon (along with one of his grandiose palaces), but why coalition forces had to set up shop there subsequently, I have never fully understood.

At the time, however, it seemed as if there would be some pluses and some minuses, the main plus being the unlikeliness of significant looting under the noses of the occupying forces. Whether this has been outweighed by the damage wrought, however, remains an open question -- a question just made more pressing by a British Museum report detailing the extent of the damage and calling for a full investigation.

The Guardian has articles on the report here, here, and here, along with others that I haven't bothered to link. Alas, the situation is undoubtedly yet worse at the sites that were left to the looters.

Around the word in 46 days

And you thought you were a keen traveler:

The mystery of where albatrosses go during their epic migrations has been solved by a study that will help the world's most threatened family of birds.

The research, based on tracking the precise movements of 22 birds, reveals that males are most likely to circumnavigate the world, with the fastest managing a distance of 14,000 miles in 46 days - the equivalent of a steady 13mph. . .

The scientists were surprised to find that this species travelled so far and stayed out over the high seas for so long. With 12 birds making global circumnavigations (three birds twice), this might prove to be the most migratory of all albatrosses.

From the Telegraph.

Newly-found ancient rock carvings, online

Archaeologists have discovered more than 250 new examples of prehistoric rock carvings, it has been announced.

The panels were unearthed during a two-and-a-half year search of the moorlands of Northumberland by Newcastle University archaeologists.

They will feature on a new website featuring 6,000 images, which is thought to be the most comprehensive of its kind in the world.

The carvings are thought to be by Neolithic and Early Bronze Age people.

From the BBC; the carvings may be seen here.

Ancient star atlas, rediscovered?

So it is claimed, and in plain sight:

A Roman statue of Atlas -- the mythical titan who carried the heavens on his shoulders -- holds clues to the long-lost work of the ancient astronomer Hipparchus, an astronomical historian said Tuesday.

The statue in question is known as the Farnese Atlas, a 7-foot tall marble work which resides in the Farnese Collection in the National Archeological Museum in Naples, Italy.

What makes it important to scientists is not the titan's muscular form but the globe he supports: carved constellations adorn its surface in exactly the locations Hipparchus would have seen in his day, suggesting that the sculptor based the globe on the ancient astronomer's star catalog, which no modern eyes have seen.

Full article here; press release, abstract, images available here.

UPDATE: Another writeup in the NY Times here.

Tsunami measurements, by satellite

THE Indian Ocean tsunami had reached heights of up to 33ft (10m) when it crashed ashore on Boxing Day, satellite images have revealed.

The measurements come from American and French oceanography satellites that passed over the Bay of Bengal two hours after the magnitude 9 earthquake struck southwest of Sumatra and observed a tsunami for the first time. . .

In the open ocean the crest of the tsunami wave stood 20in above the norm and was followed by a trough 16in below the norm.

The satellites can detect ocean surface perturbation down to a resolution of some 5 to 10 cm (2 to 4 inches), according to the NOAA site linked below.

When the wave reached the coast, however, the shallow water caused it to slow from 500mph to about 20mph, and to rear up into a wall of water up to 33ft high.

Full NOAA release here, with images and video.

Not entirely relevant aside: A friend recently had a bit of a fit over his daughter's teacher calling a tsunami a "tidal wave". "Tsunami" has been the preferred term for some time now, but after having seen some of the videos from Thailand I can see how "tidal wave" isn't such a misnomer. A normal wave is a pulse of energy thrown up on the shore; it comes, it breaks, it's gone. Nothing like that massive sea in the videos, piling into the shore and coming on and on and on, the ocean's entire surface suddenly raised impossibly high. Its cause may not be tidal, but what else so well describes that awesome displacement?

What's brown and rings like a bell?

And is the chosen symbol of the village of Bassingbourn?

A bronze sculpture of fossilised dung, better known as coprolite (used as fertiliser in the 19th century) has been chosen by a village in Cambridgeshire as most representative of its heritage.

A competition to select a sculpture for the village had been in the pipeline for some time, and villagers have now voted on the piece of art they want to represent their heritage.

"In the pipeline?" Full story here.

Museum behind bars

You know things are getting bad when they start locking away public buildings for their own protection:

ONE of Kirkcaldy's most loved buildings is facing a future behind bars to save it from vandals.

During the winter months the rear area of Kirkcaldy's Library, Museum and Art Gallery, has been subjected to random acts of violence which has left curator, Dallas Meechan, with no choice but to apply for security screens to be installed at the listed building.

Full story here.

Mussolini's first family

BENITO MUSSOLINI drove his secret first wife and son to early deaths in lunatic asylums because they threatened his rise to power. His henchmen then tried to erase all traces of their relationship.

A documentary to be shown on state television tomorrow will shock Italians after recent attempts to rehabilitate Mussolini, who has been portrayed in recent family memoirs as a paternal figure and patriot.

But the documentary, Mussolini’s Secret, paints a black picture of Il Duce’s ruthlessness.

From the Times of London.

Leonardo workshop discovered

Usual puffery in most of the writeups, attempting to make connections with the Mona Lisa and such; still, this appears to be significant enough on its own terms:

The studio and lodgings, filling five rooms on two floors and still showing traces of wall paintings bearing what one expert called "astonishing associations" with his work, have come to light in what was once part of the friary of the Santissima Annunziata in Florence and was later taken over by Italy's Military Geographical Institute.

A team of restorers found the rooms behind a hidden door leading into the complex where Leonardo stayed in 1500.

I rather doubt the paintings will add much to what we know of Leonardo, though you can be sure Florence will shortly have a major new tourist attraction.

Along with the master at least one of his pupils, such as Gian Antonio Boltraffio or Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno, known as "il Salai", may have shared his lodgings, Mr Manescalchi said.

He said that he had also found "beyond a shadow of a doubt" that Andrea del Sarto, one of the leading Florentine painters of the generation after Leonardo's, had later stayed in the same lodgings himself.

How many others, in fact, may have stayed there, before and after? I would bet the rooms were only closed off some time after the space was taken over by the military, so no earlier than the 1870s. From the Telegraph.

ADDENDUM: The Times of London gives a bit more info:

His workshop was discovered during restoration of part of the monastery occupied for the past 100 years by the Institute of Military Geography. Cristina Acidini, head of conservation and restoration in Florence, said it was an "emotional moment" when the worskhop was found. . .

The discovery was announced at a press conference coinciding with the opening of a Leonardo exhibition at the Palazzo Panciatichi in Florence and another on the Atlantic Codex and Leonardo’s inventions at the Palazzo Corsini in Rome.

Whitney embezzler pleads guilty

At least she was no spendthrift:

A former employee of the Whitney Museum of American Art pleaded guilty Wednesday to embezzling about $850,000 by voiding valid ticket sales over a 2-year period and pocketing the cash.

Naseem Wahlah, 30, former manager of visitor services, pleaded guilty in Manhattan's state Supreme Court to second-degree grand larceny in exchange for probation and 200 hours of community service. She has returned all the money; investigators recovered $800,000 from her Brooklyn home.

More here.

Early mammals: not just dino bait

All of us mammals can stand a little taller today:

When the dinosaurs ruled the world, the mammals hid in the shadows, daring to grow no bigger than shrew-like insectivores that hunted at night. Or so we thought.

Two stunning new fossils from China have overturned this preconception. Not only did large mammals live alongside their giant reptilian cousins, but some were big and bold enough to go dinosaur hunting.

Named Repenomamus giganticus and Repenomamus robustus, the sturdily built mammals lived in China about 130 million years ago, around 65 million years before we thought their kind inherited the Earth. At 1 metre long, R. giganticus was big enough to hunt small dinosaurs, and a newly discovered fossil of its smaller cousin, R. robustus, died with its belly full of young dinosaur.

From New Scientist.

AND MORE here:

Scientists at the American Museum of Natural History in New York unveiled the fossil of a mammal, found in Northeast China, with a baby dinosaur in its stomach.

The mammal was comparable in size and shape to a Tasmanian devil or a small dog, while the dinosaur was just a few inches long.

"The biggest surprise in this find is mammals eating dinosaurs," said Meng Jin, associate curator in the Division of Paleontology at the museum . . . "that means that dinosaurs are edible, and maybe tasty."

ANOTHER link here, with pics.

T-Mobile hacked, Secret Service documents compromised

Rather disturbing story in The Register:

A sophisticated computer hacker had access to servers at wireless giant T-Mobile for at least a year, which he used to monitor US Secret Service email, obtain customers' passwords and Social Security numbers, and download candid photos taken by Sidekick users, including Hollywood celebrities, SecurityFocus has learned.

FURTHER THOUGHTS: I wonder to what extent other security agencies rely upon unencrypted transmissions over apparently insecure public networks? Then there's the whole question of the inherent insecurity of GSM, and the speculation that this was at the behest of its European government sponsors (the actual implementation of ordinary GSM encryption apparently being far below the protocol's potential). The successful tracking of al Qaeda members through their prepaid GSM SIM cards is a case in point, though it is unclear whether there is actually a built-in backdoor. I do know that the GSM protocol ranks users, with VIPs getting first crack at available bandwidth and regular subscribers getting priority over pay-as-you-go customers. Do the VIPs get their messages transmitted in more secure fashion, as well?

Spare the tree, spoil the fort

Conservation work is to be carried out on an Iron Age hillfort in North Somerset to save an ancient monument.

The site at Weston Woods near Weston-super-Mare is being destroyed by trees planted on the hillside in the early 19th Century. . .

The Forestry Commission has given North Somerset Council permission to fell the trees, which will take two months.

Full story here.

Nobody expects the Oxford Inquisition

Oxford University scientists will carry out experiments on hundreds of people in a bid to understand how the brain works during states of consciousness.

One aspect of the two-year study will involve followers of both religious and secular beliefs being burnt to see if they can handle more pain than others.

Some volunteers will be shown religious symbols such as crucifixes and images of the Virgin Mary during the torture.

From the BBC.

Postal Museum: deaccession vs destruction

The National Postal Museum in the USA have shelved their plans to destroy over one million revenue stamps and will now sell them at auction instead.

Around 7.8 million revenue stamps were donated by the Treasury Department to the Smithsonian after they were taken out of use.

Full story here. The original concern was what the release of so many specimens would do to the collectors' market; to address that concern, the deaccessioned stamps will be countermarked before being sold.

Farming Trafalgar?

Near this blustery headland where Admiral Nelson won his great naval victory over the French two centuries ago, a new battle of Trafalgar is brewing. . .

Two companies plan to build large clusters of windmills in the sea just off this stretch of Spain's southern shore, a gritty place of sand dunes, lagoons and sharp brown reefs. With about 400 offshore turbines, they want to capture the power of the winds that blow almost constantly here, at the cusp of two seas, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. . .

Fishermen respond that the phalanxes of giant towers near the coast will make their tough jobs even tougher. "This is where the tuna pass, and this is where we work," said Manuel Ponce Alva, leader of a fishermen's protest movement, waving a marine map covered with ominous red arrows.

Full story here(also here)

Kuwaiti loot: where did it go?

Although most of the collection looted from Kuwait's National Museum has been recovered, almost all the jewellery, Islamic art and other works taken from wealthy Kuwaitis by the Iraqis during the six-month occupation has vanished. Only a few pieces have surfaced on the international art market, and none of it was found in Iraq after the war in 2003. . .

There are rumours that it has been smuggled out of Iraq and is being sold off in the Middle East to help fund the present insurgency.

One Kuwaiti whom Young spoke to showed him a photograph of Saddam sitting by a porcelain vase that had once adorned his home in Kuwait. The Iraqi dictator has of course been found, but the vase is still missing.

Full story here.

Another museum looted

This time it's Hoorn, and it sounds as if the collection has been gutted:

Up to 20 Dutch paintings and numerous silver items were taken during the Sunday night break-in at Westfries Museum in Hoorn. "The heart of our collection is gone, including top artworks of national importance," a museum spokesman said. . .

Police believe its alarm system had been disconnected. . .

Employees discovered the theft on Monday morning when they found smashed display cases, broken doors and empty frames.

From the BBC. The museum's website is here.

More at Expatica:

One of the oldest museums in the Netherlands, the Westfries Museum in the north of the country was due to start celebrating its 125th anniversary on Monday morning.

The thieves escaped with artworks from the exhibition "Sights of North Holland", which ended on Sunday. Among the works stolen included paintings from Jacob Waben, Matthias Withoos, Jan Rietschoof, Jan Linsen and Herman Hengstenburgh.

Whistle languages

This press release about a study of brain activation in Silbo-speakers has been picked up here and there, but in itself isn't terribly interesting (no big surprise that the regions of the brain used for spoken communication are also used for whistled speech). It's the idea of speaking by whistling that's the hook. So here are a few related links: CNN article on Silbo; preserving Silbo (in Time); Alternative Forms of Audio Communication